News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

RTE may replace old education acts in state

India,
May 8 -- To avoid confusion and duplicity in the implementation of
Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the Maharashtra
education department has proposed to scrap the existing laws related to
primary education like the Primary Education Act in the state and
completely replace it with the RTE.

The proposal that is likely to be tabled at the state cabinet meeting
on Wednesday is a procedure adopted to implement the act in totality.
The state has already missed the Supreme Court three-year deadline on
March 31, 2013, to implement the entire act.
"The RTE act is a superior act and it overrules all other acts in the
state. This is a proposed move to scrap all such acts and bring them
under one umbrella," a senior government official said. The official
added that the RTE has changed the way students are given admissions,
examinations are conducted, fees are drawn, teacher-student ratio is
fixed, and syllabus is drawn. "It is a positive step by the government
to embrace the RTE act in totality," he added.